Lando Norris was fastest in second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, the McLaren driver set a 09.890 as Fernando Alonso narrowly split the two McLaren’s after going two thousandths of a second faster than Oscar Piastri. Norris was nearly nine hundredths faster than the Spaniard and his teammate, as he made a perfect start to the second half of the season by topping both of Friday’s sessions.
The session proved to be chaotic as the drivers returned from the four-week summer break with the combination of wind and a tricky, undulating Zandvoort providing drama as drivers got to grips with the Dutch coast. But it was Norris who remained fastest narrowly with under nine hundred faster than Alonso.
It was Alonso’s teammate, Lance Stroll who had the biggest incident at Hugenholtz. He carried too much speed into the corner after being unsettled through the previous corner, Gerlach, that gave him too much speed under braking. He went straight on and smeared his car along the barrier, thus bringing out the red flag.
Stroll had underlined Aston Martin’s pace with the third fastest time in the first session, just ahead of Alonso. The second crash of the session was less dramatic, with Alex Albon going straight on at Tarzan, breaking his front wing against the barriers. The team were only a tenth off McLaren’s pace, but appeared to have continued with the high-downforce performance which took the Spaniard to a season-best fifth in Hungary.
Norris said, “Today was a good day. You get back into things quite quickly. The car was handling well. I felt we made some good improvements from FP1 to FP2, but, at the same time, the others caught up more than we would like. Even the Aston and Fernando were quicker than they have been recently. A good start but a bit closer than we would like.”
George Russell put his Mercedes fourth but was nearly two tenths behind Piastri in a session which proved chaotic as drivers tried to maximise running in case the threat of rain developed. Russell was comfortably ahead of Max Verstappen by two tenths, with the Dutchman a quarter of a second faster than Lewis Hamilton.
Russell and Piastri have, however, been summoned to the stewards following an unsafe release in the scramble to get out, when McLaren released the Australian into the fast lane, narrowly avoiding contact. A minor incident in a session which saw two red flags.
The Australian went to turn into McLaren’s pit box from the front as normal but it was then signalled by a mechanic to drive to the other side, so they could push him back into the garage. But Piastri swerved back into the path of the oncoming Russell, who was forced to take avoiding action.
Hamilton split the Red Bull’s after he went nearly six hundredths faster than Yuki Tsunoda, who in turn went four hundredths faster than the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. The top eight being covered by just over a second. Franco Colapinto was ninth, the Alpine was a hundred and a quarter behind Leclerc, as he went three hundredths ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, completing the top ten.
However, in the team principals’ press conference, de facto Alpine Flavio Briatore cast doubt on Colapinto’s future at the team. The Argentine was signed as reserve driver from Williams over the winter and replaced Australian Jack Doohan in the French team from the sixth race of the season but has failed to impress.
Asked what he needed to see from Colapinto for him to retain his seat, Briatore said: “I see everything already. I don’t need to see anything any more. It’s difficult. For this driver, it’s very difficult to cope with this car. These cars are very, very heavy, very quick. And for a young driver to put in F1, maybe it was not the timing to have Franco in F1.”
Ollie Bearman was eleventh, the Haas driver missing out on the top ten by three hundredths as he went seven hundredths faster than Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson. While Bearman’s teammate Esteban Ocon was just over two hundredths behind the Racing Bull, as he went three tenths faster than the two Williams. Carlos Sainz was three-quarters of a tenth faster than teammate Alex Albon.
Stroll’s crash left him eighteenth, almost a tenth and a half ahead of Pierre Gasly.
Isack Hadjar brought out the VSC shortly after the session restarted, he stopped on track without setting a time because of a loss of power.
